New high for TASCAM 388?

  • Thread starter Thread starter altruistica
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They are asking crazy prices for these nowadays!
I paid $500 close to 5 yaers ago for my first one and got lucky on my 2nd paying only $150.
I love them to death and if for some reason mine went missing, I'd probably consider shelling out for one.
I remember not too long ago on ebay, one going for $3000 ! But it was listed as mint, new/unused.
 
Yeah, I too see prices are driving up for these. I too bought one for around $500.00 about 5-6years ago that was in near mint shape. After little use, The transport started having issues (It was NOT the fuses - like most often times will fix) and after extensive testing, I gave up on it. Sitting at my folks in Florida in an extra bedroom. Then I moved out here to Colorado and bought one on Craigslist for $300.00 about 2yrs ago. It's a little ragged, a couple vu lights went, but it works fine. These are excellent machines, but yeah, it's insane what people are asking for these now a days.
 
Watch. Give it another 4-5 years and the Tascam 488's will be this much. Haha.
 
There's definitely an inverted bell curve when it comes to pricing on decently built older analog gear. Seems like a few of you got in near the bottom of curve and now the second half of that rollercoaster ride is starting to develop.

One caveat on the 388 is the head, as there are not a lot of options once its worn out. Yes, it can be relapped if not too far gone but after that, it might just become an 80 pound paper weight.

Shop carefully.

Cheers! :)
 
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Ghost, I agree completely. It's crazy to think that back in the day when the 388 came out, they were made to record demos and pro quality recordings. Whatever you wanted and however you wanted to use them. Now because of the head dilemma, and parts availability it's probably safer to record demos and ideas using digital, 4 or 8 track cassette and then use the 388 for the final product, so the heads aren't being worn on recordings that won't be the final product. I think what's happening with the 388 now is: Especially with the popularity of D.I.Y recording these days, a lot of "Indie" and modern punk/garage groups - Lots of styles really, Younger people (or people that weren't around or knowledgeable, or interested at the time of it's release) are realizing what a great machine it really was/is. Now everybody wants one to experience that feeling of using a quality old school analog mixer with built in reel to reel. I don't blame them and I think it's cool. It's a great feeling. I guess it's like anything else. I saw this happen with old vw's growing up (and being a fanatic and having several myself) You could get a late 60's early 70's running beetle all day long anywhere from $600 - $1000 dollars about 10-15years ago. Now folks want that for a shell sitting in the weeds in any condition. Crazy.
 
Hi
I'm completely new to the forum but this post urged me to join.
I was a bidder on the auction you're referring to and I can tell you the reserve was set at £800.
I'm desperate for a 388 and would consider paying £700-800 for a console.
I love a lot of the records that have been made on the machines.
So if there are any users who are willing to sell their 388 to me please get in contact!
 
What I was getting at, was this....

Is a 388 more desirable than say a TASCAM MSR16 or TASCAM TSR8 and an Allen & Heath (or Soundtracs / Soundcraft) mixer? You might be able to pick up a TSR8 for £350-500 and Soundcraft Spirit desks are being given away on Ebay these days for £200. Would that blow away the 388, or is there something of a magical vibey sound to the 388 that justifies what at first glance appears to be a high price?

Al
 
altruistica said:
What I was getting at, was this....

Is a 388 more desirable than say a TASCAM MSR16 or TASCAM TSR8 and an Allen & Heath (or Soundtracs / Soundcraft) mixer? You might be able to pick up a TSR8 for £350-500 and Soundcraft Spirit desks are being given away on Ebay these days for £200. Would that blow away the 388, or is there something of a magical vibey sound to the 388 that justifies what at first glance appears to be a high price?

Al
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Yeh it's more desirable because it's 'all in one' and has a 'sound' that is heard on lots of now-'classic' records over the last 10 years or so. I always felt an 80-8 or 38 and whatever '80s Tascam board would probably actually sound better (and be cheaper and easier to find probably) ... but it's like a silverface Fender Deluxe Reverb vs. a Twin I guess ... the Deluxe costs twice as much (at least) now, even though it was a lot cheaper when originally made.
 
altruistica said:
What I was getting at, was this....

You might be able to pick up a TSR8 for £350-500 and Soundcraft Spirit desks are being given away on Ebay these days for £200. Would that blow away the 388, or is there something of a magical vibey sound to the 388 that justifies what at first glance appears to be a high price?

Al
Click to expand...

Yeah, there's a bit of a cult following with the 388. It was pure genius when it first came out as a reel-to-reel version of the cassette portastudio. It's great to have an all-in-one integrated studio. But the 38 or TSR-8 easily beats it spec wise. At the time we thought Tascam should have made the 388 operate at 15 ips for the best fidelity... but in retrospect their decision to go with 7-1/2 ips has meant less wear on the heads. Half as much tape is passing over the heads for a given length of recording time.
 
I always assumed a 388 was just a Tascam M30 with a small reel/.25" 80-8 attached to it. I would probably just buy them seperately. 15 IPS 1/2" with large reel capacity sounds a lot more "professional" than 7.5 1/4" with only 7" reels.

Point is, I saw one locally on CL asking what I believe was 1,600 US, and I saw this just today.
 
No...

The 388's mixer section is way beyond an M30, mainly being 8-buss (vs. 4) and 3-band sweep-EQ (vs. 2-band sweep + 1 fixed)... a pretty significant difference, leaning toward the 388.

Then, the tape drive section... is the reverse. A 38's 15 IPS, 1/2" tape drive is double the width and double the speed of the in-built 1/4", 7.5 IPS tape section of the 388. Another significant difference,... breaking the other way (to the 38).

So your analysis is slightly flawed & is more a case of mixing apples & oranges. Regardless, I don't think a dead-mint NIB 388 is worth more than $1000, on any day. However, as a unique and self-contained unit, the 388 is pretty awesome in it's own right. For most classic (cassette) Portastudio fans, the 388 is like a wet dream come true.

A Fostex 812 (8-buss) mixer and A8LR (15 ips) recorder might be considered a roughly equivalent step up from the 388. A Tascam M512 and 38 would be considered a big step up in production quality.

The 388 was an ingenious middle-of-the-road production unit made to be moderately portable & self-contained with respectable sound quality, flexibility & "pro" features (relatively speaking at the time), that was aimed at the jingle-studio or sound-for-film(tv/video) post-production facility, (or small home/project studio),... (I think where space was at a premium & bigger, higher end fidelity would not justify a larger more premium audio recording setup).

Some users regularly warn against the 1-of-a-kind scaled-down format of the 388 vs. the head wear issue, where overall new heads are not available. It's a legitimate cause for concern as time goes on, unless you can find a NOS 388 head somewhere, (like me).

With that being said, it's a fun unit to use, being self-contained does have a particular technical charm, and the sound quality is pretty good. The middle ground between cassette & 1/2",... (some say mid-fi). For $150-$450 it's real fine. YMMV.

:spank::eek:;)
 

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To play devil's advocate for a minute, I do kind of think the 388 has a more 'vintage' or '70s kind of sound than a 38 and '80s-era board combo, and I think this is part of the appeal. Lots of bands making records on the 388 are going for a '60s-'70s vibe, and because of the 'mid-fi' sound of the total unit, I think it just gets a certain sound that you probably can't get elsewhere very easily. Probably something to do with the compromised format and the '80s tech that gets that sound.

A 38 and comparable Tascam board obviously and easily sound 'better' than a 388, no question about it. But sometimes 'better' can be 'worse' for certain genres or visions.

Personally, 10 years ago I considered the 388 (the price was more reasonable then!), but went with an 80-8 and Model 5 combo, because I was after a more vintage-type sound. One thing I will say in defense of the more compromised 'lesser' formats (like the 388 and even cassette) is that sometimes when you're in crappy sounding rooms and you don't really know what you're doing, these options are actually more forgiving. So you don't always want all that fidelity ... same deal with microphones and anything in your chain I suppose. I feel like I actually made my stuff more lo-fi when mixing it down because it almost sounded 'better' than I wanted it to. I feel like if I had a 388 I wouldn't have needed to do that (I never had to with cassette ... that was an uphill battle from the start!) ...

Obviously though, the content you're putting into the machine overrides any machine's particular sound! I think this goes without saying ...
 
The 388 does have a special sound to it and it is due to the 388 heads and the DBX cards. They are actual cards and not just high pass filters. With the NR enabled this machine is incredibly quiet. It saturates well too. I find the Hi Freq EQ band is useful but the mid and low EQ leave a lot to be desired. The preamps are pretty awful. I track through a nice external preamp. You got inserts on every channel. Couple of effects sends. Not too many bells and whistles other than that.

These machines roll off at like 180 hz. So if you are looking for that bass, this aint the machine. Go for a 1/2" 8 track. Much better low end frequency response.

If you take the plunge to get one of these machines you should probably get two machines. One for parts and one to be the A machine. You need a good tech as well.
 
Tinball said:
The 388 does have a special sound to it and it is due to the 388 heads and the DBX cards. They are actual cards and not just high pass filters. With the NR enabled this machine is incredibly quiet. It saturates well too. I find the Hi Freq EQ band is useful but the mid and low EQ leave a lot to be desired. The preamps are pretty awful. I track through a nice external preamp. You got inserts on every channel. Couple of effects sends. Not too many bells and whistles other than that.

These machines roll off at like 180 hz. So if you are looking for that bass, this aint the machine. Go for a 1/2" 8 track. Much better low end frequency response.

If you take the plunge to get one of these machines you should probably get two machines. One for parts and one to be the A machine. You need a good tech as well.
Click to expand...

I swear, I see more 388 help threads than anything on this forum. That alone would make me nervous to buy one.
 
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